ESPN SCOOP: ROBINSON'S ARRIVAL LED TO STRIKE VOTES

Michael HirsleyCHICAGO TRIBUNE

ESPN reports it has unearthed an ugly piece of little-publicized history to punctuate Black History Month.

Votes were taken in some clubhouses for teams to go on strike when Jackie Robinson took the field to break major-league baseball's color barrier 50 years ago, according to ESPN's opening segment of "Outside the Lines."

In researching the one-hour program, to air at 7:30 p.m. Friday, ESPN interviewed 93 of the 107 living opponents of Robinson's 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. Eight of them, players on the Cubs, Phillies and Pirates, said their teams had taken strike votes.

ESPN said it appeared the Cardinals also had taken a vote and the Cubs had agreed to boycott.

Former Cubs pitcher Hank Wyse said his team had voted to strike. Cubs catcher Dewey Williams said that on Opening Day in 1947, the team was waiting for a call from Dodgers outfielder Dixie Walker confirming Robinson had taken the field. If so, the Cubs "would boycott their game. The call never came," said Chris Martens, coordinating producer of "Outside the Lines."

What did come subsequently, Martens said, was word from Commissioner Happy Chandler and National League President Ford Frick that anyone who went on strike would be banned from baseball for life.

With that threat gone, ESPN reported, opposing players tried to insult and intimidate Robinson by displaying pork chops and watermelons in their dugouts and, in one instance, throwing a black cat onto the field.

Hall of Fame outfielder Richie Ashburn, who joined the Phillies in 1948y, said manager Ben Chapman was still telling players to collide with Robinson whenever possible.

"Jackie didn't say anything--he just beat us like a drum at bat and on the basepaths," Ashburn said. "I told Chapman, `Maybe we ought to get off this guy. He's killing us.' "

ESPN's 18-month preparation of this project included obtaining FBI files. They showed the agency was tracking Robinson's civil-rights activities and, as early as 1945, was examining Robinson's cause as a possible rallying point for American communists, said ESPN's Bob Ley, who is host for the program.

Ley also will do a lead-in for a 90-minute "ESPN Town Meeting: Sports in Black and White." Immediately after "Outside the Lines," the town meeting will be conducted by ABC "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel.

With this ring . . . ABC and CBS are wedding themselves to boxing series this year. ABC will do at least 10 fights as segments on "Wide World of Sports," while CBS is committing to an eight-fight series.

ABC will launch its series Saturday with a 45-minute delayed telecast of the Steve Johnston-Jean Baptiste Mendy fight for the World Boxing Council lightweight championship. "Wide World" also will feature highlights of Sugar Ray Leonard's victories over Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. Leonard, 40, back on the comeback trail, is slated to fight Hector "Macho" Comacho on pay-per-view TV Saturday night.

CBS' series will debut March 30 with heavyweights Buster Douglas and Brian Scott. Former champ Douglas, who won the title from Mike Tyson and lost it to Evander Holyfield, is making a comeback. Chicagoan Scott is fresh from a knockout upset of highly touted and previously undefeated Courage Tshabalala.

David Correa, CBS Sports programming vice president, said boxing "can be a very appealing weekend afternoon sport" that gets ratings in the mid-2s. While that would have been considered low 10 years ago, he said, "in the age of cable competition, those are not bad numbers."

ABC boxing analyst Alex Wallau said ESPN/ABC Sports President Steve Bornstein "wants to balance off and expand the `Wide World of Sports' audience with boxing. It's narrowed with too much figure skating and gymnastics."

Tomorrow is . . . Another day for Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. Two weeks after the 14-year-old Lipinski's stunning upset of the 16-year-old Kwan at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the two will face each other again in the Skate International Champions Finals, beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday on Fox.

"The skate, if you will, is now on the other foot," Fox Sports figure skating analyst Peter Carruthers said of Kwan's loss. But, he added, now "there's a ton of pressure on Lipinski."

Sofa surfing: SportsChannel's coverage of the state high school basketball championships begins with girls Class A semifinal action at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, and the title game at 8:30 p.m. Mike Leiderman will do play-by-play, alongside analyst Bridget Toomey.